Ukraine's Makiivka strike: 89 Russian soldiers killed on New Year's night

The number of military men who were killed in a recent attack on the point of temporary deployment of a Russian military unit in Makiivka, the Donetsk People's Republic, has increased to 89, Lieutenant-General Sergei Sevryukov, First Deputy Head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation said.

The representative of the Russian Defence Ministry said that the military unit in Makiivka was shelled on January 1 at 00:01.

Two rockets were intercepted by anti-aircraft defense systems, whereas four others hit the building where the military men were staying.

The impact of the rockets caused the ceilings of the building to collapse.

"As more bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, the number of our dead comrades has increased to 89. Deputy commander of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Bachurin, is one of the victims," Sergey Sevryukov said.

On January 2, the Russian Defence Ministry announced that 63 Russian military men were killed in an attack conducted by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The AFU used HIMARS systems to strike the building of a vocational school in Makiivka.

Daniil Bezsonov, Deputy Minister of Information of the DPR, confirmed that on New Year's Eve the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the building of the vocational school in Makiivka near Donetsk, where the mobilised were staying.

Dmitry Azarov, the Governor of the Samara region, said that residents of the region were among those who were killed and wounded in Makiivka.

The military claim the use of mobile phones caused the attack

Sevryukov also said that a commission was currently working to investigate the circumstances of the attack. However, it is obvious that the use of mobile phones was one of the reasons. The enemy could track the location, where the cellular signal was coming from to determine the coordinates for the strike.

Lieutenant-General Sergei Sevryukov, stressed that all guilty officials would be held accountable for what happened following the results of the investigation into the Makiivka attack.

Russia strikes back

The Russian forces destroyed the launcher of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, from which the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked Makiivka, Lieutenant General Sevryukov said.

He also said that as a result of missile and air strikes in the area of the Druzhkovka Railway Station in the DPR, four HIMARS systems, four RM-70 Vampire MLRS combat vehicles, more than 800 rockets, and eight vehicles were destroyed. The enemy lost more than 200 military personnel and foreign mercenaries.

In addition, the Russian forces destroyed as many as 130 foreign military men in the area of ​​the settlement of Maslovka, where the temporary deployment point of a Foreign Legion was located.